330 
THE LATE EPIDEMIC DISEASE IN FRANCE. 
When the pustules of the mouth had broken, I was accustomed 
to cleanse and dry them with some soft linen, and then to apply 
a lotion — a mixture of one part of nitrate of silver dissolved in 
twenty parts of water — by means of a brush of soft hair. I have 
employed also, for the same purpose, the per-nitrate of iron, but 
not so often, on account of the great number of cows and the diffi- 
culty of managing them ; nevertheless, this application, where 
used, has seemed to relieve them, and facilitate the process of 
mastication. 
If the place where these pustules appear is touched by the 
finger before the cauterisation, the animals suffer much, but 
after this operation they appear to have no farther painful 
feeling. Thus, when the brush was passed over these wounds 
for the first time, the cows, from intensity of pain, bellowed. 
The second application gave little or no pain. 
This has been repeatedly proved, and the application of these 
means to the most diseased cows has restored to them the 
desire and power of eating two or three days sooner than to 
others suffering much less, but on whom cauterisation had not 
been practised. 
Other caustics, which only demand a single application, may 
be used with advantage ; and it is of importance that the milch 
cow should begin to feed as soon as possible, because two days 
only of abstinence diminish the milk for a greater or less period 
of time. 
When the mouth was one continued wound, and the pustules 
covered the whole mucous membrane, I had the hair of the pencil 
replaced by some linen dipped in per-nitrate of iron. I had the per- 
nitrate ground, and I added some garglings of oxymel, repeated 
several times in the day. By following this treatment, a cow 
belonging to M. Lepaysan, of Caenchy, was able to eat grass at 
the end of three days. Nevertheless its mouth and its tongue 
had peeled through their whole extent, and exhaled the most 
fetid smell. I was surprised at the quickness of this cure. 
At the first appearance of the disease of the feet, I cut away 
all the dead and horny parts until they bled : I then cleaned 
and dried the wounds, and cauterised them, either with nitrate 
of silver or per-nitrate of iron. If, in the beginning or in 
the course of the disease, considerable eschars, such as those 
of the interdigital integument and of the transversal ligament, 
seemed disposed to detach themselves, the cows should be 
housed as speedily as possible, in order to prevent the influence 
of the atmosphere, and the action of the sun and of insects. A 
quantity of good litter should be strewed for them and wholesome 
and substantial food given, in order to get them into a state to 
